Lok Sabha Polls: Savitri Jindal, India's Richest Woman, Quits Congress; May Join BJP

GUWAHATI: In a major setback, the wealthiest woman in India, Savitri Jindal, quit the Congress party on Thursday and is expected to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The incident follows her son, Naveen Jindal, a former Congress Member of Parliament, who recently joined BJP ahead of the general elections.

Savitri Jindal holds a ministerial position in the Congress-led government in Haryana and is also a Member of Parliament of the legislative assembly.

Savitri, the chairperson of the OP Jindal Group, has a net worth of $29.1 billion, making her the wealthiest woman in India according to Forbes India’s “Top 10 richest women in India 2024” list.

Moreover, she represented the Hisar constituency for 10 years and was elected to the Haryana Vidhan Sabha from the same constituency in 2005, following the death of her husband in a plane crash.

The chairperson was re-elected from Hisar in 2009 and became a cabinet minister in the Haryana government in October 2013. In an earlier cabinet, she held positions as the Minister of State for Revenue and Disaster Management, Consolidation, Rehabilitation, and Housing, as well as the Minister of State for Urban Local Bodies and Housing in 2006.

Savitri was born in the Tinsukia district of Assam and in the 1970s, she married Om Prakash jindal, who was the founder of the Jindal Group.

Her son, Naveen Jindal, who previously served as a Congree MP representing the Kurukshetra constituency from 2004 to 2014, will now be contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from the same seat, but as a candidate of the BJP.

Meanwhile, Jindal Steel and Power Limited (JSPL), chaired by Naveen Jindal is under investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for alleged irregularities in the allocation of a coal block in Jharkhand.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is investigating allegations of money laundering against Jindal’s company related to the coal block allocation.

In April 2022, the ED conducted searches at several locations linked to JSPL regarding a case involving foreign exchange violations.

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